pre-1840s I'm guessing there was at least one turn of the Wheel in the distant past, before the Black Rock's arrival. Somehow, Magnus Hanso knew roughly where and when the Island would reappear. He was exploring this region when the Island rematerialized under them, which is why the Black Rock is so far inland.
1840s-1970s Someone from the Black Rock (the first mate?) turned the Wheel, changing the Island's entrance to just outside Portland, which is how the Black Rock Ledger ended up in Madagascar. Richard may have begun using the Island during this period (circa 1950) as the location of his summer camp for special children.
1970s-2004 The Dharma polar bear turned the Wheel, changing the Island's entrance to the South Pacific and depositing the polar bear at its antipode in the Tunisian desert.
2004-? Ben turns the Donkey Wheel yet again, changing the Island's entrance to the antipode of wherever he landed in the desert. This is its current location.
9 comments:
Nice and succinct. I remember feeling that, although Ben did not know when it was, he seemed to know where he was when he ended up in the desert. Somehow he made it to a hotel that had his pseudonym on file as a "preferred guest." Perhaps there's some finite number of geographic locations for the antipode, or maybe Ben is just really familiar with Tunisia and got lucky.
Any ideas about why the Island would move relatively speaking so little this time? Maybe because it's only been a few years since it was last turned? Also what about the drug plane? Any ideas about it's arrival?
*SorryGoFish* Thanks! And good catch re Ben being a "preferred guest" at the hotel. I take that to mean whatever identity he used has been staying at the hotel for a long time -- much longer than Ben would appear to have been alive. That makes me think you're right that the Island's movement has been concentrated in this location for some time. Hmmm...
*Memphish* I'm tempted to say it's random chance -- the writers are using a convenient coincidence to give us a clue. I really think we're supposed to connect the polar bear skeleton with both Widmore finding the Island and Ben moving the Island. But see my dialogue with SorryGoFish -- it does seem like the Island has been dropping people in Tunisia for some time. As for the drug plane, I have an idea about that. What if System Failure moves the Island's location, but only briefly? Maybe the Island appeared temporarily at its antipode, without moving permanently. Sort of like turning the wheel partially, only to have it snap back to its former position...
Those are good theories - I like the Donkey Wheel being directly conntected "System Failure". It was at that time when the island became visable. There is no reason why the bear could not turn the wheel - Sawyer's cage was evidence of this.
Also the Black Rock ending up in the middle of the island makes sense - where it is located was called "The Dark Territory" by Russo because the light came down differently as opposed to the rest of the island as noted by Faraday. So perhaps this is the oldest part of the island??
Big Mouth, you are def on the right track as usual. Even though directors/producers said there would no real back stories for season 5 as we are not in real time. I think we can take that with a grain of salt and they will back track on the Black Rock - there is definitly a pattern as you alluded to.
Thanks for the new post, Big, insightful as always. Memphish is thinking along the lines I am, that the antipode is still Tunisia because of the Island being moved fairly recently. We never really saw hold OLD those polar bear bones were, only that they obviously didn't belong there and had the Hydra Station collar. My thoughts were that the drug plane was over Tunisia--check that map Boone found--when the polar bear caused the disturbance. The System Failure might work, but it couldn't be the one Desmond caused. And The Incident was back in the mid 80s. The Swan and The Orchid must be connected, because of the Primary and Secondary Protocol at the very least, so ANY system failure could cause a displacement. The Preferred Guest in the Tunisian Hotel couldn't go further past the mid-50s because of the Dean Moriarty alias (from Kerouac's ON THE ROAD). The era does tie in with Alpert visiting Locke as a kid, though. Big, I like the idea of the Mittelos summer camp being on the Island off the coast of Portland. If Alpert had scooped up Locke as a teen, would he have then found the person he wanted and moved the Island again? I like your timeline and hope others might see more dates. Oh, and if the Island wasn't in the current location for the past 60 years, it means Adam & Eve as Earhart & Noonan are red herrings, and this really is starting to make sense.
About those antipodes ....
The antipode of Ile St. Marie isn't Portland, but a point in the Pacific about 1500 miles west of Mexico City.
Portland's antipode is about 1000 miles south of Madagascar.
There's a site called antipodemap.com that'll take all the guesswork out for you.
Great blog, you're definitely on to something.
So did anyone see the Comic Con panel and the nifty prizes that were given away????
An actual Daniel Farraday tie. I about died. If only I had been there to ask the question. I keep telling everyone that we need to keep our eye on that tie.
I do however think that Damon’s “stay tuned” comment was more mocking people like me than it was foreshadowing but TIME will tell. :)
Hilarious that the tie is now getting it’s due.
SKID
No way Skid?! I have not watched all the vids yet, so I didn't see that. Well there ya go. THE tie given away and we missed it.
BTW, after the new Candle/Chang vid was released mentioning the Kerr Metric theory, a very good post came up on Doc Arzt's site, with poster WLM proposing a new twist on the island time according to this application:
http://www.docarzt.com/octagon-global-recruiting/ch-ch-ch-cheng-turn-and-face-t.php
Thought it might be of interest here. I found a couple graphic images to help with my comprehension, but am still searching for more:
http://perditascientia.blogspot.com
Here's an interesting Google maps tool that seems relevant to the discussion of antipodes.
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